Stark & Wetzel Trophy

By Sigur Whitaker
 
The Stark & Wetzel Trophy
 
In May 1952, Indianapolis-based Stark, Wetzel and Company announced they would donate a trophy to honor the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year. The award came with a $500 cash bonus plus a year’s supply of Stark & Wetzel meat. The trophy was 40 inches high made of wood on a marble base topped by a metal 500 with a race car in the middle of the first “0”.
 
Stark, Wetzel Company and Company was an Indianapolis success story. After gaining experience in the meatpacking industry at Armour and Company, George Stark and Erwin Wetzel founded the company with three employees. Wetzel was in charge of making sausage, his wife, Gerda was the shipping clerk and kept the books, and George Stark was the sales manager. 
 
Erwin Wetzel was a native of Stolp, Germany. He earned a master’s degree at a sausage maker’s school at Riegenwald, Germany before immigrating to Indianapolis in 1926. Speaking little English, he obtained a job as a laborer and within a year became the sausage manager. A short time later, he went to work for Armour & Company where he managed the sausage department for seven years.Wetzel later owned a farm where he bred Guernsey cows.
 
George Stark was a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign and subsequently chairman of the American Meat Institute. He and his wife, Maribel were among the founders of the 500 Festival in 1957.
 
While the company's roots were in sausage making and luncheon meat, it expanded to include the slaughtering of hogs and cattle, and later moved into the food marketing industry. It was the first company in Indiana to produce skinless wieners. They also patented frozen beef patties that were distributed nationally. By 1958, the company was a $50 million business. They established a subsidiary in 1959 to blend spices for the company’s products.
 
The first Stark & Wetzel trophy was awarded to Art Cross in May 1952. Cross served in the Armed Forces during World War II and was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge. He received the Purple Heart. Returning to the United States, he began driving midget cars. He was the national midget champion in 1952 which led to him being in the 1952 Indianapolis 500.
 
Drivers who won the Stark & Wetzel Trophy and the Indianapolis 500 include Parnelli Jones, who shared the honors in 1961 with Bobby Marshman, won the race in 1963, Mario Andretti won the trophy in 1965 and the race in 1969, and Mark Donohue won the trophy in 1969 and the race in 1972.
 
Stark & Wetzel was sold to Rath Packing in 1974. Other companies have continued the Rookie of the Year award. Between 1979 and 1986, the trophy, which was then sponsored by American Fletcher National Bank, included Ray Harroun’s image. Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911. In 2025, the Ray Harroun Trophy was designed to honor the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year.
 
Rick Mears won the trophy in 1978 and subsequently won four Indianapolis 500 races. He shared the trophy with Larry Rice. In 1985 Arie Luyendyk won the trophy and the race in 1990. Jacques Villeneuve won the trophy in 1994 and the following year won the race. AFter winning the 2000 Indianapolis 500, Juan Pablo Montoya was named the Rookie of the year. He repeated as the Indianapolis 500 winner in 2015. Hélio Castroneves won the award in 2000 and the first of his four Indianapolis 500s in 2001. Ryan Hunter-Reay won the trophy in 2008 and the race in 2015. Alexander Rossi was named Rookie of the Year in 2016 when he topped the podium.
 
The Stark & Wetzel Trophy is at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
 
 
If you know of someone who would enjoy this article, please forward it to them. If someone sent this to you and you would like to be added to my subscriber list, please let me know at sigurwhitakerbooks881@gmail.com.